The World Wide Web (“the Web”) is a system for publishing information, in which users may use a Web browser application to retrieve information, such as Web pages, from Web servers and display it. Search engines, subject indices, and links between Web pages and Web sites facilitate the exploration of information published on the Web.
The Web has increasingly become a medium used to shop for products. Indeed, thousands and thousands of different products may be purchased on the Web. A user who plans to purchase a product on the Web can visit the Web site of a Web merchant that sells the product, view information about the product, give an instruction to purchase the product, and provide information needed to complete the purchase, such as payment and shipping information.
Like other types of merchants, Web merchants generate revenue and profits by selling products to customers. Thus, aspects of a Web merchant's Web site that directly facilitate the sale of products contribute to the Web merchant's level of profitability. For instance, the one-click purchase system developed by Amazon.com, by making it easier for customers to complete their purchase of products, contributes to the level of profitability of Web merchants employing this system.
In addition to aspects of a Web merchant's Web site that directly facilitate the sale of products, other aspects of a Web merchant's Web site may also contribute to the Web merchant's level of profitability. Principal among these other aspects of a Web merchant's Web site are aspects that motivate more customers and potential customers (hereafter “users”) to visit the Web merchant's Web site more often, and to “remain” there, viewing content, for longer periods of time. The extent to which a Web site motivates users in this way is sometimes referred to as the Web site's level of “stickiness.”
A Web merchant that has a particularly sticky Web site is often able to improve profitability in a number of ways. First, because more users visit the Web site more frequently and remain longer, the Web merchant has more opportunities to sell products to users, and ultimately sells more products to users. Second, if the Web merchant elects to display advertisements on its Web site, the level of revenue realized from such advertising increases as traffic on the Web merchant's Web site increases. Third, if the Web merchant elects to enter into referral or traffic sharing agreements with other Web sites, a high level of traffic on the Web merchant's Web site can increase the revenue derived from these agreements, or at least reduce the cost of these agreements. Fourth, to the extent that the Web site can encourage users to contribute content to the Web site, such user-contributed contents can make the Web site still stickier, reinforcing the other ways in which stickiness contributes to profitability. Thus, any aspects of a Web merchant's Web site that increase the stickiness of the Web page can improve profitability for the Web merchant.
One reason attributed to the somewhat low rate at which users have accepted shopping on the Web is that, while shopping on the Web usually satisfies the utilitarian purpose that most people have for shopping at physical stores, shopping on the Web generally falls short of fulfilling the “entertainment” or “shared activity” purposes that many people also have for shopping at physicals stores. Accordingly, a new feature of a Web merchant Web site that helped to fulfill these “entertainment” and “shared activity” purposes of shopping, particularly one that increased the level of stickiness of the Web site, would have significant utility.